Researcher development

At The University of Manchester we actively support our researchers in the development of their careers.

We offer our research staff a range of excellent training and development opportunities, delivered by dedicated researcher development teams based in each of the three Faculties, as well as by the University’s professional and support services:

We view researcher development as a partnership and encourage all research staff to take responsibility for their own personal, professional and career development. As such, we encourage research staff to engage in some form of regular reflective practice (for example, making use of the Researcher Development Planner). We also encourage our research staff to make use of the Researcher Development Framework as a tool to map and guide career development, giving structure and progression to development, and tailoring training and development programmes as appropriate.

HR Excellence in Research

The University is proud to have been awarded the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research badge. The award was first won in 2011 based on our commitment to adopt in full the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers. We have retained the award following our two-year and four-year review processes in accordance with the respective two-year Concordat Implementation Plan and we have now completed our six-year review and published the results:

Six-year review 2017

Original action plan

The University’s commitment to implementing the principles of the concordat is made explicit in our top-level research strategy document.

We collect the views and opinions of our research staff using a variety of mechanisms, including our active research staff network across the University and the internal University Staff Survey, conducted every two years. The data we collect is used by the University’s Research Staff Development Working Group(PDF document, 319KB) – chaired by the Associate Vice President for Research – in consultation with key stakeholders to monitor progress with our current Concordat Implementation Plan to continue to improve personal and career development support for research staff at the University.